Hello everyone…..I’m in shock as most of you. I spent the last couple of days reading the entire spoiler thread on amazon….dint comment there…was waiting for svb to open the forum up for commiserating.
OY, KCS, Krtmd, Leif, LLC, Andrea, VikingDame, MrsLeif….and to so many of you out there…..I feel your pain. And I agree with everything. I’ve only been in this fandom for 2 years and have never before been so invested in a fictional character/couple. Its not so much the final choice as it is with how it was written and how we were strung along. Ouch! So much of my time that I cannot get back.
And for those of you in this fandom who have been in this for years….I cannot even begin to imagine your frustration and outrage. SVB – thank you so much for making this a wonderful place where we could meet kindred spirits.
Someone please please write a book set after DL that would play real to us. I will hold out for that…

Hey i was thinking…..
listen to me….
how about i start writing a book series….
lets say 13 books..,,,,
then (and THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING PART) basically 11 of these books are just FILLER
…and….here this cause i just had a brillant idea……
the last book is so full of stupid twists that basically the Heroine goes back where she started (cleaning tables and serving beers) and settles down and it’s like NOTHING happened…..
…and the Hero is dismissed in 2-3 scenes and became a sex slave for a woman he never wanted??

What do you think? Gimme your personal opinion because i trust you…maybe i should let the readers think that the hero and heroine are going to end up together til the last book?? Well, that would give me lot of $$$. I need to think about it.

None of us read the books wrong. We are all in good company. *hugs*
I’ve had alot of different emotions over the last few days.

I’m angry.
At myself, for defending Charlaine to all the naysayers (Read BL’s) all these years about shoddy writing and continuity errors, dropped plot lines, various bombs that never went off,and how Alan Ball & True Blood elevated the books and made the show so much better than Charlaine could ever write the books.
I defended Charlaine, even when I knew the criticism was warranted.
Why? Because she gave me the Viking. And she kept on giving him, book after book after book after book.

I’m sad.
I’ve invested my time and money. We weren’t wrong. We were duped and manipulated. Milked like cash cows.
Much like HBO is doing with the Eric character.
It really is all about the money. It’s the bottom line.

Charlaine knew the MASS MAJORITY <> were going to feel fucked over.She knew it. She cancelled RT in the fall, she isn’t touring with this book,& her site is deader than her future career. *wink* Everything regarding DEA – no released chapter, no multi media blitz, no live Q & A’s, it’s all hush hush. Why? Because Charlaine and her publisher knew damn well that if anything was leaked it would affect “Pre-order sales.”
Milked no more. The cow is dead to me. I officially dub Charlaine from the “Maker” to the “Taker”. Faker works too.*wink*

I’m thankful.
Thankful for the spoiler’s and those who provided them.
Thankful that I was able to cancel my pre-ordered Special Edition Cover, my Kindle order, and my print of the End Paper by Lisa D.
Thankful that Charlaine won’t get one more cent of my money. Ever again. EVER.
Mostly, I’m thankful for all the wonderful, funny, supportive, beautiful, and like minded women I’ve met online, here and elsewhere, over the years.

And lastly, I’m hurt. It was all for nothing.
Coicidence that the devil was trading souls for wealth and prosperity in DEA?
I think not.

To all Sookies lovers …I’m from Paris, France and my english bookstore called me on friday 26th Apri to inform me that my order of Dead Ever After had just arrived ! I rushed to get it and started reading like right on the subway going home …I stopped reading after the first 5 chapters because I was feeling sick, really sick …could not go back to it before sunday when I had gathered my mind back and was really to go to the bitter end.
This is bad, I mean its really bad, sloopy, lazy writing, it’s not even interesting and it’s kind of depressing to witness the actual killing of a good story by the author herself.

SVB – I just saw that the forums have gone away. Dear, dear lady….don’t get depressed/mad enough to undo what you have going here. All of us LOVE you and cannot tell you of all the wonderful times we have had here. You have so much karma going for you…think of all YOUR fans

Oh! Thank god! In my hurry the last time, I must have unchecked the log me automatically button…
I’m glad that you are there for us! And I cant think of a better adjective than the one you used to describe this last book. In my mind I shall rename it the DCF

Suv, this made me laugh. And I cant think of a better adjective than the one you used to describe this last book. In my mind I shall rename it the DCF

I’m laughing because a little over a week ago I told my boss, Good God. This is the biggest cluster f**k I’ve ever seen in my life!” Little did I know I’d be seeing an even bigger one and know I spent my money on 12 kindle books, 3 kindle short stories and a POS Companion (yes, I thought it was from the time I opened it and felt taken right there). I don’t know if I can even bring myself to get the kindle version of this last hack job. I know I’ll read it at some point to make up my own mind, but I can’t bring myself to commit to it.

Zanne…I have to say….I loved reading your opinions on amazon…
Esp the one on page 66!!!
This alone shows the dedication of her EL fans….and she missed all this…so she could proudly say that she held true to her original vision….sigh….

That’s why we love you, SVB. Of all the places I have come to talk about these books, yours was the only site that always provided thoughtful, text-based analysis and speculation. It was intelligent, respectful and very thought-provoking. I couldn’t wait for you to post the next blog, not because I was such a fan, but because you always delivered top-notch information. It’s not your fault that CH didn’t even understand her own genre well enough to write for it. As Eric say, CH, blow me! Well maybe not. She’d probably mess that up too.

Yea, Eric is pimped out to the Queen.. but Hey CH has a bright idea about writting a mini book about the left over character’s :-p like who gives a fuck.. CH might end up killing out the Queen & Eric becomes King at the end… **shrug** but really who the fuck cares at this point.. **shake head** from what i hear about the last book CH finally kills rapist Bill out just to have Sookie end up with a Bill doppel.. :-p **shake head** & all of this took 13 books & short stories :-p seriously i will never read anything from CH. & now it makes sense why AB wrote the last 5 seasons of TB the way he did.. s2 was Sam centric :-p

I’ve said it for awhile that I think AB knows the end. I think CH told him a long time ago. That’s why I think he felt at liberty to give Bill more hero moments to level the field between him and Eric. He wanted to play off that to keep the show rolling. That’s why he’s built up Sam’s character. Didn’t you read the Season 5 ending reviews? The most spectacular death was given to Sam when he changed into a fly, flew into Roz’s mouth then changed back. He too was covered in blood like Billith but at least his was for an honorable reason. And at least AB made Sam a very grey character and gave him lots of sex scenes so we could at least think of him as sexy, even though both ST and RW say that Sam and Tara have so much chemistry that they should end up together. All I can say is that now that Sam has been so hot with Tara, how the hell will Sookie ever be able to go there? EWWW Just no. Breaks the Girl Code all the way.

I like Sam on the show. Trammell is a great actor, and I’ve enjoyed most of his storyline. That being said, I’d rather her still end up with Eric on the show. I think we all know what the chances are of that.

Yes, after Billith I thought AB might be going there but unless their going to go for an alternate ending from the books to get the fans CH lost, they probably won’t. It would be a way to revive that show though. He could cash in on her idiocy and wouldn’t that be the ultimate karma for her.

I think it’s meant for TB Eric – there are rumors that he will be killed off in S6…

I agree that poor book Eric is better of dead…that would have been actually a good a option if she wanted Sookie with Sam at the end and it would make some sense…Erik killed Breavheart /Ned Stark style but she hated him for reasons I will never understand … such a missed opportunity
As many mentioned here, original story wasn’t meant to be that long and Eric would have never been developed as a character…but then TB entered the scene..and she kept on going… and then Skarsgard as Eric just brought even more popularity to the character…many fans started reading books because of it..I am one of them…and I think she hated that…

I think she killed Eric in the worst way possible. He’s alive, with a woman he doesn’t love. Doomed to repeat his servitude and responsibility to all others than himself, with no control over his life.

Yup. I get more depressed as time passes rather than less. We have Sookie- an ultimate survivor; molested as a child, parents dead, grandmother butchered. Sookie is raped, betrayed by her first love, beaten multiple times and tortured. Through that all ( well, most of it) she stays compassionate, curious, stong and loving.
We have Eric- turned against his will; lost his family; was sexually abused by his master and had no control over what was happening. Managed to keep his spark, humor, love of life, great capacity to love. Managed to carve some independence for himself and is good and fair to people who depend on him. After many centuries he falls in love; fights for Sookie, protects her, risks his life for her. She does the same for him. They seem made for each other, though it is not easy for either.
Resolution- this strong, independent man is sold as a sexual slave, having lost everything. This strong, independent woman had her heart broken and quietly settles to live out her life, her spark gone.
This is way too depressing. When great literature ends tragically, it is painful but somehow cathartic. The end of Sookie saga is painful, unnecessarily cruel and irritating as hell.

And because it ends in hell for both Sookie and Eric, it’s fitting that it starts with a devil. The devil has certainly played tricks on both of these characters (also on Sam) and on us. Who knew the devil would be revealed as the writer.

2010 Comic Con. CH says that the show will end differently than the books. Everyone thought that it meant Eric books/ Bill TB at the time. Now it could be anyone for TB. Starts around 3:20 in video.

I wouldn’t believe anything she said at this point. I bet if she was asked about this today she would tell you, “I don’t remember what I say in interviews. I’m surprised anyone remembers something I said years ago.”

Amen to that…Sam & Tara have tremendous chemistry on the show. As with the books, I get nothing more than a brother/sister vibe with Sook & Sam. Even more so than with Jason because that creepy flirty acting Anna did with him in Dallas was gross. But at this point, TB sucks so bad – especially the main character, that I’m not at all intrested in who ends up with who.

SVB rocks! I have been a spectator of this blog since I discovered Sookie a few years ago and just recently started commenting. Reflecting during the past couple of days (as I ping pong between being shocked, heartbroken and pissed off) I realized a big part of my enjoyment of these books has been visiting this site. And reading everyone’s analysis, perspectives and witty comments (especially SVB’s cutting humor). Thank you, SVB.

My wallet to CH and her books: “Hi. We had some good times, but you’ve reached into me too much and I got nothing in return in the end. While I’ve been waiting for you, I’ve been keeping company with others and have found greener pastures. It was fun while it lasted, but we’re through. I’ma movin’ on.” *snaps shut* “BUH-BYE.”

My favorite thing to do in these situations is to hold out the money (or a check), wait until their eyes light up then say, “This could have been yours, but it’s not.” Then I put it away and walk away. Sorry, it’s the Scorpio in me. I can be evil, malicious and petty like that, CH. Bad reader!

First of all, I just want to thank SVB for this amazing blog. I can’t even begin to count the hours of enjoyment it has brought me over the years. Kudos to you and your moderators for all the hard work and time you’ve put into making this such an amazing site.

Now, as for the SVM, my experience with this series is new for me. I’m not normally interested in love stories. My favorite movie is The Godfather; my favorite author is Stephen King; I don’t do “happily ever afters.” But Harris’ Sookie and Eric really reeled me in and I’ve been captivated by their story.

In reading over comments on the Web in recent days, particularly those from other authors that probably aren’t informed of the specifics of these books or this fandom, I don’t want my frustration to be dismissed as an angry fan whose favorite suitor didn’t win. My frustration is derived from the MANNER in which this happened and how it makes absolutely no narrative sense to the TWELVE books that preceded it.

I don’t need to have the ending that I want but I need to have the ending MAKE SENSE.

I’m there with you tbrants. I never was into romance or even paranormal (well not since Anne Rice and Stephen King in the 1970s). Sookie and Eric just drew me in and made me believe she was actually going to pull it off, this not very good writer but very good character builder. Then this? Wow. Just wow.

Tbrants….hear you!!!!
This was my first paranormal book series too. The only character I used to love with such an intensity was Sherlock Holmes. Cant say they are in the same league….but I wish now that I had stuck to classics. They are a classic for a reason!

the next day I was so upset that I packed my books and threw them in the trash, it was like a cleansing of mind, how could I reread Dttw, or ATD, and not think it was all for nothing? I felt relieved, so I do not mean how each should act, but it made me feel good.
I think I started to pull away emotionally from the books a year ago, I was cautiously optimistic, but not very lively, but never imagined that all the writing of the previous books would be discarded as worth nothing, thought it would be disappointing, but not sooo bad executed.
cluviel dór AKA deux ex machina, served to bring everything together in the LAST book, without the effort of making the narrative to have some consistency. No development without building a relationship, beyond pure friendship, to make it all believable, even though I was disappointed not to have the HEA that I wanted, at least have minimal coherence and respect.
You know what’s worse? knew of our reaction, then hid all of us to all blow up in our face after we pay the book with our money and to be disappointed, and still expected that we will be thankful.

Me too! I was so angry I packed up every single one of my books! I must say I haven’t really commented much but this site and everyone on it seem like old friends! So glad I discovered it years ago and I am absolutely relieved that I have others that understand exactly how I’m feeling about this ridiculousness! It is nice to have such a wonderful group of ladies to be able to vent to!

That chaps my hide, too. She’s pissed and all the lemmings on her FB page think people should ‘respect the artist’ and plop down our money for something we already know is crap! Where is the logic in that? Yes, Master, may I have some more?! I don’t f’ing think so.

Yayyyy! So glad you plan to stay open for the wake we all need! Lets make it a good one or even the best Irish wake you’ve ever been to for a much loved person! And best of all…..snark is welcome here and nobody will be calling us names! I wish I was talented because all day I have been hoping for a great gif of sookie running toward Sam in collie form to the music of “let’s get it on….” except the aaaahhhhhh sound is aaarrrrfffff! Also wondering if possible puppy dreams with those adorable little growls and paw jerks will be a problem for poor sookie?

I love hearing her talk about the ‘curve balls’ she threw in the final book and that people are going to miss it. I got your curve balls lady and did not like them so you can have them back. I won’t throw them back to you as hard as you threw them to us though. I cannot trust her as a writer so she gets no more money from me.

If you don’t want to be spoiled and you’re conflicted about your pre-order. Why don’t you cancel it and wait for few reviews to come out and make a judgement call that way? Or you could wait for it to hit your library It’s a win win for you

I was just going to suggest, wait for your library to get its copy/copies. Although I work at a library and we still haven’t recieved our copies. I’ve been chomping at the bit to get at it, but now all that excitement seems for nothing. I am worried though we won’t receive them in time for the release date. That would suck for our patrons- or maybe not [shrugs].

Done. I didn’t see the point in wasting my money on something that would probably just annoy me anyway. If change my mind I can always read it later, but I doubt I will. I had enjoyed the series up to this point but I’m not nearly as invested in it as I am with other, much more worthy series.

I think I might have to jump in here, and say that with the length of the comments on this we do need to keep on topic. If you’re interested in discussing other series (a sentiment I am ENTIRELY sympathetic to right now ), there’s lots of suggestions in the Book area of the forum. SVB.

Jag….yes, most people here have been spoiled. If you are not looking to be spoiled, Pl don’t follow this post and the comments(the post has been marked for spoilers)
If on the other hand, you are looking for spoilers, head over to the spoiler thread in the forum….

Hey SVB – Have loved the Newsflash pics/gifs since the spoilers broke; Al Bundy’s face said it all, great that you are opening the blog up to comments now. Can’t wait for your Review. This is still the first place I come to for my SVM news especially now that that news blows chunks.

Funny, if CH had even a tiny modicum of the deidcation and respect for her fans that Sookieverse has shown their members, we may have had a different ending.

As has been my mantra over the past few days, that women will never get any of my money again. Ever. And if I’m asked if I would recommend this series, I would happily give my opinion. After I stopped laughing.

What upsets me the most was CH saying Sookie wouldn’t get a conventional HEA. To me conventional is what she got. I was hoping Sookie, due to her fairy heritage, would find out she was going to have a loooong life allowing her to be with Eric.

But I must say the signs were there as to who it would be. Re-reading all the books in anticipation for #13 & especially after the CD was used, I couldn’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.

If all the spoilers are true than CH truly failed the series & wholeheartedly failed her fans. I still wouldn’t throw my books away. If you feel that strongly, maybe donate them instead.

I’m still kind of wishing and praying that all of the spoilers are just a mean and gigantic prank someone is playing on us and that is truly not the HEA for our dear Sookie.

I also want to say how much I have enjoyed having others to share in this journey with. Others to share in the heartache and heartbreak, the laughter, as well as the tears and all of the joy that we have gone through in this series has been amazingly refreshing and awesome. SVB we couldn’t have done it without you and you are so appreciated. Thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart for this amazing place to come to rejoice as well as commiserate with other fans of the series how we feel about our heroine Sookie and her real, true, honest to god HEA Eric. Especially in the weeks and days to come until I have the book in my hands and confirmed what the spoilers said is true. See, I’m still holding out hope it’s not true.

I’m donating them so that if someone does want to pick them up, they’ll be paying Goodwill a dollar instead of putting money in CH’s pocket. And I’m going to write “She ends up with Sam” in the front of every one. LOL

you remember when DITF was made a great set-up for a possible new summit, with all that explanation (useless in fact) on Naryama, Amun, territories, etc..? looks like someone changed his mind, because I was expecting a great plot involving this summit, and perhaps a trial, however everything was “forgotten” and “solved” lazily with such cluvier dór, Major * rolls eyes *. when I say solved, I mean forgotten, because we all know, was not ‘important’, it was just filler

That’s what I am so pissed about as well. We give her writing too much credit. It all just fillers. All those speculation, discussion is just a waste of time. Nothing makes fucking sense! I really hope her sales tank. To all those people who said she can write whatever she wants, it’s her book. Well, you and your ilk can buy her book and make her richer, but not this consumer. Artistic license my arse, she’s just manipulating the majority of her reader who loves Eric. Sookie is one cold hearted bitch who doesn’t have any sympathy for Eric whom she declared love desperately a few days ago being sold to the Queen. Sookie is selfish. There, I said it. I refuse to believe this because I’d like to believe that Sookie is not selfish and shallow. Don’t bother to defend CH anymore, or analyse her writing. It is what it is, no deeper meaning and all just fillers. Book 3 to 12 is just fillers. I thank you SVB for this blog. It was a new experience for me, joining the internet community. On a bright side, my husband will be happy he wont be listening to me talking about Sookie anymore:). Even though he’s the one to push me to pick vampire genre again after Anne Rice kill my enjoyment. As CH said, if you don’t like the book don’t read it. Well I’m listening to your advise CH.

Don’t give up on vamp books…check out J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. The best!! The books are awesome and Ward love’s her characters/boys…very protective. This fuckery won’t happen with her she respects her fans.

We’ll see. Thanks for suggesting that but i’ll stick to stand alone book, no more unfinish series except GRR Martin’s book. I read the Mercy Thompson book up to book 6 and she is a badass but no more uncompleted series.

Yes, I do. That and quite a few other things, WHICH ALL WENT NOWHERE. Good Lord, it’s like True Blood all over again, with the plot holes and sloppy writing. Well, now it turns out those two had a lot more in common than we wanted to think. *facepalm*

That’s it. I cancelled my order and may just skip reading it. I can’t believe I had actually scheduled a day off work to enjoy a day on the couch with Sookie and Eric. Thank goodness y’all saved me from that one. I can’t believe the Maker f’ed up so, so badly. Eric’s maker missed the boat, so I guess I should be so surprised. Arg!

I had also the plan to reread the entire books this summer, kind of Sookies way, in the long chair, my bikini, an iced tea and my sun glasses on ….Guess i have now to find a new serie to enjoy my summer time, I won’t be able to reread them, even the good ones, knowing how CH betrayed us all at the end !! Don’t even know if I can resell the whole thing on line, knowing everybody is going to get rid of them for their own peace of mine … So what : trash ?

what the hell just happened? All this vampire love fest fir sookie was just a filler. WTF? I’m sooooo happy I donr have to buy her book now. AND the hell with her Coda. I can’t stand reading more sookie/sam HEA sh*t

Although I haven’t posted here in a very long time, I have lurked. Your reviews have always been the best, well thought out and beautifully written. I am looking forward to reading your review for DEA.

I feel sorry for you that you feel you have to read it. I’m not reading one damn word. I’ve read all I want to read about Eric and Sookie. She has taken a strong, powerful, caring vampire and turned him into a petulant, cruel asshole. I’ve read enough of that already from the last two books.

I am so glad I started pulling away from these books and characters. It sucks but I really don’t care all that much anyway. If this had happened about two years ago, I would have been wrecked! So I know how hardcore fans of the series and the E/S pairing feel and you guys have my sincere sympathies . What CH did was just nonsensical and I can’t help but feel that she did it out of plain spite because she hated a certain section of her fans.

I think I stopped enjoying the series around book 7 or 8. And that’s about. I fell in love with the show True Blood first and then of course was bored out of my mind during season 4 and have not watched a single episode of season 5.

At least the show does not take itself seriously. Alan Ball knows he is writing a campy, cheesy summer time show with weird characters behaving in hilarious ways. Charlaine Harris on the other hand pretends that she is writing some literary masterpiece and her mysteries are something awesome when they are anything but.

Thank God for Game of Thrones and the ASOIAF books. Now there’s an author who knows how to write a good book. He may take years to give us the book (Instead of pumping out badly written dreck every year) but he does not pull out half-assed endings and scenarios without no basis and hints from what happened before in the story. He kills off favorite characters and puts them through horrible situations but the readers still love his writing and his characters because it’s well written. I think most readers here are not exactly pissed at what CH did to Sookie and Eric but rather how she did it. Poorly written fanfiction about characters she had clearly grown to dislike and a contrived badly written mystery to boot.

Once again my sympathies to the fans who stuck with her through all these years, spend time analyzing her books and characters and shelled out time and money to only end up with this fracking finale.

What are ASOIAF books. I need to drown my sorrow. Have you read The Thing About Fate? It is really good. SVB can you keep this blog open to talk about other books in the genre? I am realitively new to it and the people here are all so smart and funny. Maybe start a book of the month thing?

Oh yes, I was confused I have read them all and can’t wait for the next. I know all THOSE page will be worth while. As a reader you have those moments in the text where you say to yourself “that was why that other thing happened 2000 pages ago.” It is very satisfying. Also Martin has at least let his readers know everything will end in rubble and we are all still eagerly reading because we know the way there will be that good.

What I also love about his books – is that even if the characters don’t get a HEA we’d like, agree with or die – there is a damn good reason behind it and there is a written build up for it. I mourn for the characters, but don’t leave feeling totally tricked. I would love a whole series devoted to Arya.

I know what happens in this book and what kills me isn’t exactly that Sookie ends up with Sam but the character assassinations of Eric, Pam and Sookie. Where she left Eric is just mean spirited. And the fact that it’s all been for nothing, she’s back at square one with none of the people she’s gotten to know through 12 books.
I’m pissed off but mostly sad and feeling like I’ve lost someone dear to me. To know that everything I’ve been reading for years was just a filler… I feel duped and cheated.

This place has given me some of the best time these last years. SVB, the moderators and the members are the reason why I feel better about starting this series. I’ve met some great gals through this place. Thank you all <3

Hello everyone. This really does feel like a wake. Now that we’ve had a few days for the shock to settle in, I would like to say my condolences to all of us.

Thank you to the mods for their many hours of dedication to this site. It’s truly been a pleasure to get to know so many of you. We’ve had fun discussing what we’ve read and speculating about what it means. Unfortunately, we weren’t reading the story we thought we were.

I have a question: if CH was intending Sookie to end up with Sam, why didn’t she make him more part of the story? In some books, he was barely present. She had ample opportunity to make him a more interesting character. I just don’t get it.

Some people may think the only thing we’re upset over is who Sookie ends up with. That would be wrong.

My initial assessment? She made her decision in book 2/3. We all know that, she’s said it a million times. In book 2/3 she had no idea of two things: 1, that the series would be extended repeatedly to total 13 books, and 2, that Eric would get so out of hand.

The fact that he sold so many books presented a nasty problem – to dial him down at any point and to start laying foundations for Sookie/Sam that were clear enough to make that eventual pairing make sense at the end, meant she risked sales. So she let Eric and Sookie go on WAY too long, because she was on a roll. Then she inexplicably decided to STICK to that ending she decided 11 books ago, no matter what, and now she’s crying because it all blew up in her face. I’m stunned, not only at the outcome but her reaction to it.

I know I don’t speak only for myself when I say that if she’d shoved Sam forward more in book 9 or 10 and actually made SOME sort of attempt to get me on board, I wouldn’t have been so firm in my conviction that she was heading to an E/S HEA.

Apparently, that attempt was Small Town Wedding. Which is completely fucking RIDICULOUS considering she removed that storyline from Dead Reckoning, to be sold in a separate novella that only her most hardcore readership actually read! In retrospect, that storyline was FAR more important to the outcome than the cash cow plot that she DID put in DR – Eric’s drama with Victor. So she cuts the Sam/Sookie extended road trip storyline out of the main novels – you know, the story in which Sookie met Sam’s entire family, including his mother, stayed in his childhood home and pretended to be his FREKING GIRLFRIEND – and is now wondering why everyone is going “Well, what the actual FUCK just happened?!”

Who the hell is making these decisions? Jane fucking Bodehouse?

If I’d been a Sam shipper since the beginning, I’d be miffed. They never really got to see them as a couple, or see that relationship grow in the depth they should have in a series of this length. And even worse, Sookie doesn’t turn to Sam until ERIC dumps her. Then suddenly he’s been there all along! Give a dog a bone.

This isn’t a twist. It’s a bait and switch. And from the sounds of things, it’s executed dreadfully.

all this ^ ^.
Summarizing Eric, Eric/Sookie, Eric / Sookie / Pam SELL books, Sam DOES NOT sell books, because keep him in the background, without many stories, without major conflicts, without large and intense emotions, to take it at the last minute, for all those who feel triumphant because they THINK that predicted based only on stories aside, neither were part of the main books, because they NOT give good stories and good sales.
is easy to say that a character is perfect for each other when they have showed no major conflicts, then expect to be ALL be perfect at the end, because one day you decide to IGNORE the whole development of the story to make a point, this is not realistic, it is POOR EXECUTION. period.
Eric was certainly USEFUL for a long time to sell books. Sam was never useful, just CONVENIENT AND LAZY.

I highly doubt that Sam is the original HEA. During book 2 Sam was busy playing hide and seek with the maenad. This is the book, where she start writing Sookie and Eric flirt. Sooki is still with Bill, after that Sookie is contemplating A Alcide, S and E flirt and have adventure together. Then book 4, after that she makes Eric forget about book 4. Angst ensured then she”s with Quinn. More angst with Eric finally they bond then she makes Eric remembers. After this Tb and Eric’s character overshadowed Sookie. I think this is when she starts to dislike Eric’s character. We know she hates it when her main character is less popular. We would never know the real reason because I don’t trust what comes out from her mouth anymore. I had this discussion with ky husband when Dr comes out and I have to read the naked with her rapist bit. I was so angry and start to question her integrity as a writer. I refuse to buy DL. What a waste of money buying something that didn’t bring you joy. I don’t know how shesleep at night, maybe all this means nothing to her. Maybe she’s as cold as Sookie is to Eric these past 3 books. That’s how I alwayfeel when I read Sookie since DITF. Now I know why but I think she lied about her original HEA. It’s def Eric.

This is the stupid part – she COULD HAVE made Sam a more interesting, engaging character. She could have had them show some chemistry, lingering looks, flirting, maybe some angst about feeling torn between Sam and . She intentionally kept him a peripheral character for much of the series. She could have made him Sookie’s mystery-solving partner. She could have made us root for Sam.

I totally agree with everything SVB wrote above. I also agree with Olulu when she said “Sadly I always suspected SVB was smarter and a better instinctual writer than CH, and gave CH’s work more credit than she was actually due.”

I have loved reading this blog and participating in the forum, so thank you SVB for that!

Dead on, SVB! Again, Charlaine’s from the South so surely she knows you’ve got to dance with the one who brung ya…and that was Sookie and Eric.

I’m still stuck on the “She won’t win” conviction from Eric. I know CH gave us other indicators that it won’t end well via Bill and others, but seriously? Why relegate Sookie to a perpetual life at the bar? Last book she was thinking of community college and growth. It just breaks my heart for her. (Based on the spoilers, I’ll likely want to throw her to the curb after the fight, though.)

My prediction for After Dead is that Sookie and Sam don’t pan out. Based on the short story on Tara and JB’s house, she refers to Sam as a friend, so what the hell is going on there? There wasn’t a hint of spice between them in that story. I wonder if CH meant that Sookie’s true HEA is her realization that she can make it on her own. If that’s the case, she didn’t need to shag Sam in the last book.

“Best love making” is just too reminiscent of Eric saying “This is best.” Charlaine should have taken the hint. There was only one that fit the bill.

“I wonder if CH meant that Sookie’s true HEA is her realization that she can make it on her own. If that’s the case, she didn’t need to shag Sam in the last book.”

I couldn’t agree more. I was hoping for an ending that felt good and true to Sookie and ending up on her own would have felt better than the way Sookie’s friend Sam (and minor character) was inserted (into her yahoo palace) at the last minute. We’ve all read stories where you couldn’t wait for the long time friends to finally get together and CH had 13 books to make us feel that way, yet that’s not at all how the overwhelming majority felt. Quinn, Alcide and even Bill had more fans and their only satisfaction is that it wasn’t Eric. Way to go CH!

To break her heart and take away Sookie’s choice, let Eric’s creepy sexual abusing maker win, give Eric the cruelest punishment ever, and even destroy her friendship with Pam just to have Sookie settle for her very own JB DuRone, whose thoughts she can hear, and have a traditional, dull and uninspiring ending is not something this reader signed up for. CH can make the CD experience change Sookie but she can’t make it magically open up my wallet. :LOL:

If she never intended for Eric to be that big a character, then she should not have written him the way she did. It is due to her musings that she let Eric get as big as he did, she wrote him that way. If she meant for it to be Sam, she should have made him more important. More important than him turning into a dog during the full moon and chasing a Maenad through the woods.

I also wondered why she let her editor talk her out of KILLING Bill but let this travesty of character assassination happen.

Small Town Wedding so funny because the best part of it for me was that I thought Quinn finally had an HEA, and I wasn’t even a fan of his. What kind of half-assed attempt to show how great a couple could be was having a GROWN ASS MAN bringing a friend to a wedding while his real girlfriend stewed at home because he didn’t think his mommy would approve? And THAT’S that man that Sookie’ supposed to be happy with? AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS?

“What kind of half-assed attempt to show how great a couple could be was having a GROWN ASS MAN bringing a friend to a weeding while his real girlfriend stewed at home because he didn’t think his mommy would approve?”

THIS!!!!!! When Sam shifts into a dog, it is probably a neutered one because he sure as hell has no balls.

“If I’d been a Sam shipper since the beginning, I’d be miffed. They never really got to see them as a couple, or see that relationship grow in the depth they should have in a series of this length. And even worse, Sookie doesn’t turn to Sam until ERIC dumps her”

and hence: CODA tadaa – everything will be explained there – how their love evolved into fireworks ..vomit, vomit, vomit

If you actually zoom in on the Coda cover, baby-Sookie’s eyes are extremely green. They’re emerald. They were definitely saying “hey guys, this isn’t Sookie”. Plus, she looks very young – the coda cover looks like a girl in her early teens.

3822 kebrown805 Edit 2013-04-28 19:41
Why are Sookie’s eyes green on the cover of After Dead? I thought they were supposed to be blue.

3823 dallasmc Edited 2013-04-28 20:02 2013-04-28 20:00
Sometimes, the artist takes some creative license. It probably doesn’t mean anything. And in what I have seen of the cover, I can’t really tell that they are any particular color, so maybe it’s just the image you have seen.

4/29 Update: CH ignored subsequent questions from other readers about the eyes and apparent youth of S/S’s progeny on the After Dead cover…nice try, though. Do you think CH is a fairy? Just doesn’t tell the whole truth.

I think the “eyes” have it!

3822 kebrown805 Edit 2013-04-28 19:41
Why are Sookie’s eyes green on the cover of After Dead? I thought they were supposed to be blue.

3823 dallasmc Edited 2013-04-28 20:02 2013-04-28 20:00
Sometimes, the artist takes some creative license. It probably doesn’t mean anything. And in what I have seen of the cover, I can’t really tell that they are any particular color, so maybe it’s just the image you have seen.

3824 caseycook13 2013-04-29 08:19
I noticed the green eyes too.

3825 mageric 2013-04-29 08:40
This may be way, way off–but the “Sookie” on After Dead looks very young and the green eyes (creative license understood)really threw me off. I actually wondered if it was Sookie or if it was possibly a daughter?

I know that can’t be, but the thought did cross my mind as a speculation.

3827 Maker 2013-04-29 11:06
“After Dead” is organized into the alphabet, with Lisa Desimini illustrations. All the entries are relatively short. It’s just a way to see what happened to many characters after the books ended. I’m sure I skipped a character or two, so feel free to write your own ending if one of those was your favorite!

I think your intiial assessment is well thought out. However, I have to disagree that Sam was the HEA ever since book 2. I DO remember Charlaine saying she knew how it was going to end since book 2. She also said it was all right there in the book. There wasn’t much about Sam in book 2 that stuck out in my mind other than his galavanting with the maenad. I’ve read and reread book 2 and what sticks out the most is how right Eric and Sookie are. They seem to be best suited for each other. I think at some point she DID change her mind but doesn’t want to admit it.

But then again, it is possible she forgot what was in book 2, or left out the amazing scenes with Sookie and Sam being meant for each other by accident. I wouldn’t think it beyond her at this point.

I had a feeling it was Sam during their conversation at dinner where they discussed the pitfalls of their current relationships and Sam’s dislike for Eric, Sookie’s for Sam’s squeeze. I had a feeling CH was (clumsily) trying to set up a poor imitation of Ross & Rachel: the “I thought you were only my best friend but it’s been you all along” thing.

Like many of us, it’s less about it being the dog in the end than it is about the swift character assassination of Eric in the last 2 books and the complete “hey Sam we have 30 pages to go and apparently I’ve already met everyone I’ll ever know in my life so we are each others consolation prizes.”

That said, the E/S (and P/S) relationships through the first 10 books were the best writing CH has ever done. I’ve read her other series and nothing comes as close to being as smartly written and Eric, Sookie and Pam when they are experiencing an adventure together.

The best part of the series for me overall (and particularly the last 4 years) has been this blog and SVB’s excellent reviews, parsing of the text and smart speculations. Sadly I always suspected SVB was smarter and a better instinctual writer than CH, and gave CH’s work more credit than she was actually due.

Ultimately, CH has since the last series extension grown on her contempt of the fandom and even Sookie herself. I think she laid down the nuclear option so as to never be asked to revisit a series she desperately loathes. Her current “distress” is false at best, a ploy for empathy so as to help salvage readership for new series to come. The only difference between what’s happened this week and what would happen by 12:05am May 7th is that all that preorder money would be collected and less likely to be refunded.

Thank you for your entire post and particularly this. “I think she laid down the nuclear option so as to never be asked to revisit a series she desperately loathes.” I’ve been struggling to understand why she hit the detonate button on her way out and I get it now. It’s also no coincidence that ALO was introduced in Book 10.

I completely agree with your last bit of analysis. I think she was sick to death about being asked about the series, Sookie and Eric. She kept saying she was eager to get on to her next project and excited about that. I think this was her way of killing it. Too bad she didn’t remember anything from the class on how to build a readership.

Honestly, this reasoning is exactly why I question whether or not Sam WAS actually the endgame for all those years… Remember in the first book where the closing scene was Eric floating outside the hospital window after having sent the flowers?? It was a clear bit of foreshadowing (among MANY other things, obviously) that showed me, as a reader, that this guy was super important. So, isn’t possible that CH got so sick of the EL fandom, fan fic and questions that she shifted at the end? She strikes me a woman who could go against the grain just to do it… just to show us that she was in control all along.

Obviously, the opposite is true and she always intended it to be Sam, but if that’s the case, she is one of the shittiest, least savvy writers I’ve ever read (and apparently been completely duped by!), because her lack of foreshadowing for this ending is astounding. I just don’t know what to think.

I’ve only seen her FB page. She is just asking people to not spoil the book for others before it has come out. They are taking down ‘negative’ posts (though not all), stating they are only storing them and they’ll be back on May 7th. She states she is upset that people are judging the book before they’ve even read it. I haven’t seen her call one set over another her true fans – that’s all between the folks who say to leave her alone and those who are vocalizing their displeasure.

I’m so grateful to that German book store. The only good thing to come out of this book is that she won’t be selling as many as she hoped.

She may have taken Sookie back to square one but (from the sounds of it) she has absolutely deconstructed HER OWN Eric into something nasty and cruel. He served his purpose, sold the books, brought in the cash then she craps all over him! What a spit in the face.

Thank you so much SVB and mods for all you do, I truly appreciate being able to come here and grieve with you all.

Agree completely… so glad I found out before reading… Now, if I decide to borrow a book and read I’ll be prepared for the heartbreak to see Sookie go back to square one with scars and zero character development.

And, why did she originally call the series “Southern VAMPIRE Mysteries”? She should have called it “Southern SHIFTER Mysteries” so people would have a clue to her end game.

well maybe really changed her original ending, because she was annoyed by all the eric bill discussion due to TB… I feel cheated like probably almost every reader of those books, not going to buy the last one.

SHE was the one who started this crap teams playing on each other, SHE fed it first, AB and TB also did this, of course, was not he who started (DUDE, do not believe I’m defending AB, a bit);
I can not mention in Bill now, because he had NO significant role for years and years and many books, so he will spend his immortal life, walking through forests and using his computer, without anything relevant or interesting to do. I may be wrong, after all have nothing interesting to do in the books, is apparently a synonym for HEA * rolls eyes *.

The divorce scene : 1 page really ! Sookie is at merlotte’s working and Pam comes to speed her as she is in her working clothes to fangtasia where she has to hand the wedding knight back to Eric saying I’m yours no more. End of the scene !! Sloopy writing like the entire book …

Your right it was Karin ! She came flighing apparently …It’s kind of difficult to register that Eric had another daughter we never heard about for 12 books before …For me it’s still Pam the only one !!

Actually, I would have thought it would be more appropriate of him to hand it back to her and be the one to say, “I’m yours no more”, since it is him belonging to her, rather than her belonging to him, that is the obstacle to the marriage to Ado Annie, isn’t it?

It may be sad but it is apropos as they are bleeding while we are bleeding out due to the complete buildup then…well then nothing.

It’s kind of like reading 12 books about a woman who has cancer and a brilliant researcher who is spending his time encouraging her while he searches for the cure. He believes it so she begins to believe it. The last two books ramp up the tension. She is going to die if he can’t pull it off while he inexplicably starts to become more and more silent. The only time he shows up he vacillates between “It won’t win!” and “There is nothing I can do! If it was that easy, there would be no choice!” Then in the end, it’s over in five minutes. The doctor is a complete jerk for inexplicable reasons and abruptly leaves for another research center after saying on TV while he stands next to the woman that he can’t cure her. They have one final screaming match and she tells him to get out. Then suddenly, magically she is cured using an herbal remedy her grandmother had in a cabinet this whole time. She finds it when she’s cleaning out the old food. Everyone tells her it is very powerful and to be careful how she uses it. So magically she is cured and the last 12 books have been… well who knows why they were even written. They were compelling filler but nothing more. There is no resolution. She goes back to her life before without missing a beat and doesn’t seem to be bothered by the whole experience at all.

Oh dear, that comes from typing on the phone – the text above was meant to read: “Actually they say “This is yours no longer” as both cut themselves with the ceremonial knife in the arm. I found this scene very sad due to its quiet tone and the symbolic gesture of bleeding.”
——————

@Zanne
It is totally apropos! Love your analogy and to add to it, before the fallout the woman told the researcher/doctor she’d rather die than be cured by magic.

My initial thought? THIS was the ending she had planned since the beginning? If that’s the case then why on earth did she waste pages upon pages of developing her protagonist with a different character altogether? What happened to the “unconventional happy ending”, and an even bigger question that’s been boggling my mind: Why was it even called The Southern Vampire Mysteries in the first place?!

I’m so disappointed that an author would have her supposedly strong and independent protagonist settle just for the sake of having a man by her side. A man who time and time again would make her feel uncomfortable whenever he exhibited romantic feelings Sookie never seemed to have for him. If she wanted Eric and Sookie to be this ill fated couple all along, fine whatever. But to throw her with some character without any buildup just to spite her readers (and let’s be honest, Eric fans) seems unfair and kind of petty. It seemed the more popular Eric got in both mediums, the more irritated Charlaine Harris became. Which baffles me. It’s YOUR character, why are you so against him? If it’s because of the show, despite my disappointment at times the show helped draw a lot of viewers to her books. And she ends up hurting us even more than the show. We just can’t win.

What I’m trying to say is that this feels like a con. A cash grab that after the final book confirmed it even more. No book tour? No interviews? Charlaine took the money and ran. She can blame the leak from the German booksellers all she wants, I for one am grateful I saved myself the money and energy.

“All this Sam crap is like sex without foreplay. Sex without foreplay, will and real interest.”
Exactly. It’s guilt sex, the kind you have when you’re not that into the person you’re dating, like- ya know- a rebound. Heh.

Like so many others who have commented on here, I am shocked and disappointed in the way that Charlaine Harris has decided to end Sookie’s “journey”.
Although I tried reading some of the other series that Charlaine Harris has written, I could never get into those. I loved the Sookie Stackhouse series and although I noticed a decline in the quality of writing, I still stuck it out.

I’ll still keep the early Sookie Stackhouse books because I really enjoy them but I doubt that I will read another Charlaine Harris book again. I first started reading this series when I was 11 years old. I kept with this series for 9 years and I only just find out that most of those books are just filer. I am not happy. I’m not going to waste any more of my time on her books. Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I have it in me to go through all of the disappointment again.

I’m finding comfort in a huge box of chocolates, reading Eric and Sookie stories on fanfiction.net (Some of them are actually very well written and are worth a read) and finishing my Camp NaNoWriMo project. I’m also reading paranormal romance novels that promise to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling.
It’s like a nasty break-up, guys. If you keep yourself busy by doing things that make you happy, then you’ll bound to get over your ex.

Hello, I love to cruise through your site and read the latest. I just had to write this time. I can’t believe what CH has done. It seems to me that she’s been mad for quite some time that we, the readers, have loved Eric so much. So as her parting gift, she’s completely ruined such a great character. I can understand having a vision, and writing the story you want, but that’s not what she’s done. She used Eric’s character to keep readers buying her book. It was a ploy and I think that’s why everyone is so upset. Not that Sookie ended up with someone else, but that without any buildup she ended up right where she started before Bill entered Merlottes. It doesn’t make any sense. We all want Sookie to be happy. But as it stands, Sookie is just settling. I think a lot of people will say we’re just unhappy that she didn’t end up with Eric, but that’s not the case. We’re unhappy that the writer smugly strung everyone along, like it was a big joke, and then dumped this heaping pile of an ending on us. I knew it was going to be bad when CH said she wouldn’t do a tour, but I had not idea it would be this bad. Whew, thanks for letting me vent….

I have been lurking around for a while and have never posted. I know, I’m a bad girl. But I am glad I am not the only one saying, “What the fuck?” I feel like I have missed some vital part of the series. Where was I when she was developing feelings for Sam? Was it when he was he was fucking the maenad? The very same maenad that clawed her back? Nope, don’t think that was it. Maybe it was during the whole Jannalyn debacle? Hmmm, still don’t think that was it. Ah, it must have been when she chose, Bill, Quinn and Eric over Sam! Wait, no that can’t be right. Every single time Sookie was given a choice, she chose someone else over Sam.

Charlaine has some serious consistency issues. We have all seen it. This is just another example of her Sino Aids virus fuckery. So why am I surprised? Why am I surprised that she pulls the rug out from under a large portion of her fan base? I understand that she had envisioned a certain ending. But any good writer will tell you, a story takes on a life of it’s own. A good writer knows how to adjust based on how the story has progressed. I think it is horrible the way she has treated her fans. I’m not saying she has to pander to her fan base, but it would be nice if we had saw it coming. Hell, I could accept a Bill/Sookie HEA before this crap! Now, that’s saying something.

I had every intention of buying the last book, but now I don’t think so. Mainly for two reasons. One, if she has no more love for her readers than this, then I see no reason to give her my money. The other reason is SHE HAS MADE ME LIKE ALLAN BALL!!! That in and of itself is a call for mutiny. She has made me look forward to the train wreck that is True Blood. At least on that show the crap that happens, you can see it coming. There is a reason that shit happens.

I just want to say that I have enjoyed this website. I have looked forward to reading everyone’s posts. Oh well, I guess I will have to take solace in some good old fashioned fanfiction and knowing I do not suffer alone.

TBH RTrogner – I’m not sure what you mean here. Did the German Amazon site release the book early as well? I didn’t hear that, but I know that at least two different booksellers in Germany released the book early.

If you are referring to the spoiler thread at the amazon discussion boards in the US, I don’t think that is the problem. That thread was created to try to contain the spoilers that were already out there – and were spilling into the other threads by stunned fans. It was an attempt to keep those who wanted to discuss the spoilers in one place – and prevent the inadvertent spoiling of others who wished to remain spoiler-free.

I keep coming back to how much this really feels like CH throwing a temper tantrum. She seems kind of sadistic in a bite the hand that feeds you kind of way. She originally intended a Sam HEA but the stories and the readership engaged and invested in the E/s pairing? How truly awful for an author to rocket to fame and a large readership (all equalling $$$) and instead of seeing where the muse took her and what engaged her readers, she shit all over them so she could stand next to her original idea even though her own work took her away from that. (sarcasm)

I respect creators’ visions and their art is their own. So this kind of thing would make total sense if she was both not a great writer AND the kind of writer who does NOT engage with her readers via websites, book signings, conventions and interviews. If you decide to do that, however, I think you DO end up owing a respect to your readers for fostering their investment and engagement into your creation. And listening to your readers (who in this case seem to love your characters more than you do) is not undermining your art or sellin out. Rather, it can be an amazing thing for both the artist and fans. There are plenty of examples where a dialogue and engagement between the artist and the fans create something amazon that may not have been the artists’ first idea. So many great examples but it’s early here and the most recent example I can think of is the Nick/Jess relationship for anyone who watched New Girl. The creator, Elizabeth Meriwether, stated many times that relationship was never a consideration. But between the chemistry the actors brought to life and how the viewers saw it and were engaged by it, she found herself writing a relationship she hadn’t considered but was invigorated to explore because of the viewers.

In TB terms, it’s why Lafayette survived Season One.

Instead of engaging with her invested readers by considering a change (a growth really) to her original vision, CH threw a hissy fit, took all her toys and went home. She must be a real peach to know in real life.

I hope the amazing fanfic writers out there will write us a better ending.

I don’t think I can donate or pitch the books. I had SO much fun with Sookie and Eric; I hope that one day I can just forget about how it ends and enjoy them for what they were. For now though, I can barely look at the books. I feel like a re-read of my favorite scenes will be cheapened because of the terrible way it ends in DEA. If she would have given them an appropriate break-up and hadn’t made Eric come off as an unfeeling turd, that would have been okay. Someone on the Amazon board mentioned Casablanca and I think that’s totally it; we all knew they might not make it, but it should have been an amazing good-bye for them. Even if Eric has been filler all this time, he was damn good filler and he deserved a better ending.

I want to be respectful of CH, but seriously, WTF was she thinking? I don’t like Sam, but I can see how Sookie might choose him. Couldn’t CH have made Sam fun to read if she was going to make him the endgame? I just don’t get it.

I think you’ve hit on the strongest thing I feel. So sad to loose so many years of pleasure reading these books. I have never been involved in fandoms before this series and only once before been intriqued and invested enough to stick around through the long waits between books. Joining in blogs like this one and enjoying all the great insights, funny comments and commiserating! It’s like losing a dear friend. I haven’t tossed my books either and have them all on audiobook, paper and ebook so whenever the mood strikes me I can revisit them whether on the many long road trips I take, relaxing in the pool or yard or enjoying a quiet evening at home. I had really started to loose hope after DL that Eric/Sookie would be the endgame but can’t believe it was necessary to destroy Eric’s character to get where she claimed she wanted Sookie to be all along. Sam’s not interesting, doesn’t generate passion or even seem to be even in love with her any more than she is with him. This is the last ending I could have imagined for such vital characters.

Bingo! If Eric was going to be cast aside in favour of the shifter, she could have done it in a way that didn’t denigrate all of the fans who had grown to love him and his love story with Sookie. She mightn’t have liked Eric much, but it was her own writing that created him and led us to feel this way. She could have done us, and her character, the courtesy of leaving us with a memory we could hold in high regard in our hearts, but what she did was assassinate him and turn him into a despicable, selfish, prick. She didn’t even leave us with the equivalent of the “We’ll always have Paris” scene from Casablanca. She could have, but didn’t. She really did a number on us!

Now we feel the same dissapointment, sadness, anger…But we have each other to vent ourselves. Thank you SVB this site is awesome! And I agree with you SVB, we have to read DEA not for CH, but for us, we need to close this door properly, and then come here and keep talking shit about it! Lol XoXo…

Hello everyone…I’ve been a lurker for over two years now, and have never gotten around to making an account. Still trying to figure out exactly what was leaked (I’m actually having a hard time finding it), but I’m pretty sure I got it. SVB, thank you for creating this site and making it what it is. You’ve given me so much food for thought and quite a few happy hours worth of sitting and reading and thinking. I cannot post my misery in the forums, but I feel it with all of you, right here. I really had alot of hope.

All of this! Everything you have all written! Reading all the responses here and on the awesome Amazon thread kindly started is really theraputic! I not only feel like the dumbest, most illiterate person in the world for “missing the whole thing” but really feel like I’ve been cheated out of dinner first, maybe a drink or even a short conversation to agree to have a quickie and skip right to the shower that will leave me never feeling clean again! I peeked into her website a couple times looking for answers (I know, super dumb) and I swear you can hear crickets chirping (HEHEHEHE). sorry I couldn’t resist and I hate trolls but feel like I had to. You probably won’t be able to hear them for long but I’ve seen cemetaries with more action in them! I did cancel my pre-orders just to feel better for a minute. Like others, even having been so diappointed in the last two books, put in for a day off and was looking forward to putting this 13 year AND MANY DOLLAR relationship to bed in peace and quiet! I look forward to visitng a lot in the next days and weeks to hear your awesome analysis of this cluster*** of a last book and spend my mourning time with you all!

I too am not a frequent poster. I have found this whole things to be like a bad dream. I have never been invested in a book series or characters before and I feel so betrayed right now. I have posted several times on CH;s FB site and just about everything has been taken down. She keeps crying about how unfair it was to someone to leak spoilers ahead of time and how upset she is about how she is being treated. She has even had other authors post support for her on her site because leaks are bad and that somehow if everyone will just give things a chance it will be better after May 7th. Hello! After that you will have to BUY the book. Regardless of what she has published once you buy it it’s yours. Have you ever tried to return a book?! Really hard to do. She knows what she did. I plan to go back to her FB site over and over again periodically to keep letting her know how I feel. This will eventually blow over but none of us will ever buy anything from her again.

The really funny thing about other authors coming to her “defense” is that one of these authors even wailed about the SVM being a love triangle, so what the hell are we so upset about? “So what, she didn’t end up in the ship you wanted, it was a fifty-fifty chance, blah, blah, blah”.

Clearly this “author” hasn’t read the books and is basing her “opinion” on TB.

I read that, too. It’s been a typical reaction to all the criticism – all the name calling (asshats, etc.) has been coming from her ‘true fans’, who are supposedly not us, ones who have bought every book and novella throughout the years. I guess a true fan drinks whatever swill they’re given and like it.

The signs of things to come …………My library has a little used book section where you can purchase paperbacks for .50 and hardbacks for $1.00. I went to drop off some DVD’s, so I browsed through the used books. There were 3 entire sets of SVM books already. I am sure if I wait a few weeks, there will plenty of copies of DEA. I’d rather give my dollar to the public library system than CH.

Another ‘not seeing the forest’ thing about the last book that isn’t getting a lot of attention, but I feel should is – am I just imagining that Sookie can read Sam’s thoughts? Maybe not as clear as a regular human’s, but she can read his mind right? Or she could in the beginning. And she was lamenting that she couldn’t ever be with anyone because of that. So a vampire’s blank mind was refreshing. Um, that didn’t just fucking go away. Or was it Bill’s help to get her to ‘control’ it another one of those ‘one line wonders’ that was supposed to point us in the direction of Sam? Let’s just hope Sookie’s never tired and run down while she’s with Sam (or anyone else). She’ going to get an earful.

“When all your paintings have been hung and all you songs have been sung/ Just remember what was yours is every one’s from now on/ That’s not wrong or right but you can struggle with it all you like/ You’ll only get uptight.” -Jeff Tweedy

So it seems like everyone is pretty much saying the same thing and I want to say it too just to get it off my chest. We all could have at least accepted a S/S ending if it seemed like Sookie was happy but she is not happy, or even if there was some build up with Sam but there was not. As many people have said, other writers have horrible things happen to their characters and it is okay because they grow or it enhances the plot. None of the posters I have read have read the book so maybe it will make sense but I don’t see how. The other major point is why make Eric so awful in the end? So Sookie can get over him? No body is happy not even Sam lovers cause he is getting sloppy seconds.

I started with the quote because I think it applies here. We as fans are part of this whole thing it is CH’s story but you can’t say after 13 years of writing that readers don’t have some ownership too. Further more is now seems obvious that Eric was given page time because he sold books. This is a case of good characters happening to mediocre writers. Now it makes sense that I was skipping to Eric Sookie and Pam scenes it is because they were the best parts of the books without that trio I think the series would have gone no where. Sookie does have some scenes with Sam in the later books and they are boring and passionless. Deciding you will be there for eachother if there is no one else is the opposite of romantic to me. I once read a blog post where she talked about how much it meant to her that people were reading her books to get through hard times. I started reading the books to get through a hard pregnancy. I am so glad I am not going through that right now it might be a lot worse for me.

I have not read the spoilers. I did not look scrolling down the page. However, I did notice the site was down the other day for maintenance and read the top of this post. I am a little concerned here. Sometimes spoilers are wrong or misleading. It has happened before with the books. I choose to read the book and see. The book comes out in a little over a week. I will reserve my panic (okay I am worried but I have not seen the spoilers) and potential meltdown for then. In the meantime, I will hope for the best and prepare for the worst.I can’t see Sookie having some epiphany that she all of a sudden loves someone else.It just would not make sense to me. I will try to go spoiler free for the remaining few days till the release. just don’t want to be upset before I even read the book We shall see. Again, I am going to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

CK – I appreciate you’re trying to remain spoiler free, so I would warn you to be really, super careful about what you read and where you go because this is everywhere.

The spoilers aren’t wrong – we don’t publish rumours or second hand information; I’ve never published spoilers on this site that I haven’t seen first hand myself or spoken directly to the source. Harris has also confirmed their authenticity herself.

Been a while since I’ve posted, but I wanted to add my two penethworth. I’m saddend by the fact I’ve been duped, but can’t say I’m surprised by the ending CH has pulled out of her arse. Last year I was left scratching my head by news that twoey blood packed a punch for vampires, since it was never mentioned in From Dead to Worse when Eric drained Lucky the unlucky Were, or in Dead Reckoning when Pam fed off Mustapha.

Also having seen her read from Dead to the World her facial expressions when she talks about it being the book where people started falling in love with Eric says it all. She dislikes the character that sold the books.

I don’t mind how the series ends as long as it makes sense, which quite clearly it seems it doesn’t. And apperantly it’s because I read it wrong. Clearly I missed all those times that the shifter came to her aid, with protection, financially, or generally when she’d had the crap beaten out of her.

So I’ll wait for GRRM’s next instalment, because even with all the characters he has, he at least manages to get the names right from book to book.

That’s what I don’t get. How can you dislike a character that you obviously so lovingly gave to your heroine in the first place. If Eric was going to be a dick all the while, why did he do all the things he did for her? Say all the things he said? Why the fuck did she even write the fourth book?

But it’s our fault you see, we’ve read him wrong. He’s high handed, arrogant, manipulative, loyal, generous, brave. You know unlike the guy she ends up with, who makes her a partner in the bar she invested in, who gets pissed when she negotiates a favour from the vampire he asks her to go and see. Yes he did lend her a place after the fire,but that’s about all he’s ever done for her, since he was bloody useless at the Were war and Claudine had to pop in and protect her.

Who knew these books were so complicated that so many people misunderstood them.

To be fair, he did turn into a lion in the were war. But he sure was quick to go run after that maenaed that had just killed a bunch of folks so they could screw some more. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t dislike Sam. I just bought into what CH actually put out there with Eric and Sookie. Not just a line or two here and there that hinted at Sam.

I’ve been lurking on ya’ll for several years now. First, let me commend SVB and Co. for the fantastic work you all have done here. I agree with the other posters who’ve commented that you all are much more intuitive writers than the “Maker” herself. I feel like I’ve gone through all the stages of grief in the last few days since stumbling upon spoilers on FB. I cancelled my Nook preorder and maybe someday I’ll be able to make myself read it, but as of now, I think I’ll just leave my memories of Sookie as they are… Not all shit upon by a woman who intentionally misled her fans out of what I can only assume is greed and meanness of spirit. All those times she complained about readers not getting what she’d put on the page, I never dreamed she was talking to us.

I’ve enjoyed reading you all, and if you ever decide to open up the forum to new memberships, I’ll join you there.

No, I haven’t been avoiding. I’ve been traveling and celebrating a graduation with my family. I’ve read the “Eric is a sex slave” comment on Facebook, and I find it utterly incomprehensible. Eric will certainly enjoy having sex with Freyda, and will build a relationship with her. He’s learned to adapt to thousands of situations in his long, long, life. To imagine that he won’t find challenges and rewards in his new life is ridiculous. He’s a survivor.

-Charlaine Harris on her board (may 13, 2013)
I’ve got this from tumblr is she for real???

Thank you SVB for giving us this space here to put a closure on this damn thing…

I still find it hard to believe that my little happy escapism that were SSN turned to a pile of dust… I keep looking at the books on the shelf standing there now totally meaningless. I tried to pick up one of the books today (picked CD just randomly and read few lines…a bit where Eric is so fascinated and proud of Sookie for killing Lorena…then later a small bit about Sookie’s driveway..and then I just had to close it…just not working now at all …I mean how sad is that and I know I am not alone…If I was the writer I would be devastated if I knew my readers felt this way…

Nothing hurts me as much as a thought of was done to the Viking, – totally UNNECESSARY and totally UNCONVINCING and UNBELIEVABLE – I don’t give a shit about HEA and Sookie at this point….Seriously, I am just going to pretend that he was kidnapped by aliens in the moment while Sookie was using CD on Sam, and he disappeared into the universe forever and ever

Why would any decent writer feel like purposely hurting her/his readers like this….she could have had her ending, anything she wanted and tell her story (even if it didn’t make sense) but at the same time show a tiny consideration to all her fans….that wasn’t so difficult if she cared at all…but she didn’t and seems she wanted to make sure that all her readers who felt anything towards the Viking were shot in the heart …eg. Pam stating the reason for Eric’s protection measure ..why that…just to hurt us more..so now we have nothing to hold on..nothing to look back to… Shame on her!

Ugh. Just… fucking.. ugh. The only spoilery bit I know is that Sam is her HEA. My husband (brave, kind soul) looked it up for me, because I didn’t know to know anything but her HEA.

I’m disappointed: in her and in myself. Why have I spent these last 5 or 6 years so heavily invested in these books? I’ve ached with Sookie. I’ve tingled with Sookie. I’ve wanted to cry when Sookie cried. I’ve sucked it up and felt brave through her when she was brave. I’ve wanted to be better at cleaning my home when she’s gotten in a cleaning fit.

And now I feel like a teenager who was sucked into a fucking Twilight novel and have been fed the “Jacob falls in love with (whatever her name is)’s daughter” line.

I feel stupid. And that means I won’t buy this book. I’ll either check it out from the library or get a torrent version.

And I may never try to become this invested ever again. Except in the Kvothe & Denna saga. Maybe Rothfuss won’t fuck me over. But can I really trust another author after I was just bent over the barrel for 5-6 years?

The Twilight equivalent would be Bella staying with Mike Newton after three books despite going through her “turmoils” with Edward. I’m ashamed to say that as much as I dislike Twilight, at least those paper flat characters got their HEA.

I can buy DTTW as misdirection, but not that she wrote Eric unable to come to Sookie’s rescue because he was tied up in silver whilst feeling her torture because of the love he had for her, and then risking his own life to defend her. That’s going too far for it to be just misdirection. That’s putting him firmly in hero/HEA territory. It’s all so incomprehensible. Her plot choices, inconsistency, and juvenile reaction to legitimate criticism.

I don’t post here a lot, and I did fear it would be Sam. Not because it made the most sense, but just because of the way Ms. Harris was reacting to fans, speaking about Eric and her “nothing beneath the surface; it is what it is” writing showing Sookie having more and more in common with Sam and less and less in common with the vamps. HOWEVER, I still had hope that she wouldn’t be so self destructive and just plain mean to not only her fanbase, but her own characters!! I am actually shocked at how horribly she has treated them all. I was rooting for her to really knock it out of the park and impress us all, but I think any of us on here could have come up with a better way to end the series even if the stipulation was that Sookie and Eric couldn’t end up together. It’s truly mind boggling!!

There are other authors and other series, but this has made me so much more cautious about where I will put my money. The local library is looking better and better to me right now. Best you you all.

I think the world of CH, no couple, no will be stay together if you have the smallest of problems, we should have seen the problems started when they were not going to work, because for all these statements that are not novels convecionais the couple for her has to be “perfect”, I got angry couples perfect type super romantic, Sookie and Eric had spark, intensity and problems like any couple, I thought (or rather she made ​​us think intentionally) that the strong parallels between the relation S / B and S / E, would be to prove that a maturation, that two people could achieve with some misunderstandings, fights, but win with love, but she did everything the same as Bill, and even Quinn, they were eliminated pieces by pieces, then Bill became a zombie without function in the books, Quinn disappeared for several books now and then Eric, she did so definitively and unequivocally that killed the slightest hope.
Then came the shot for breech: Sookie is perfect, Sam is perfect, typical couple harlequinn, ie conventional romance and tedious.

Yes, thank you SVB! Can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed visiting and reading all the wonderful insights and comments for the past few years. So glad you’re back up–this was the first place I thought of once I heard the news. Just needed to be part of the group hug.

I feel like I am missing things because references to things on other websites seem to get posted and deleted – could someone explain to me how we know all of this (awfulness) for sure??? I am wondering if I should cancel my preorder of the book but even reading through everything I don’t understand how we know the basics of what happened are from a credible source??

Hi Annabel I’ve posted this a few times through the thread but I’ll repeat it.

The book was accidentally released early to German readers by a small online bookseller. I have spoken to a German forum member who had it land in her mailbox, and other German readers have shared widely across the internet and on twitter. Harris has also confirmed the accidental early release of the book on Facebook.

Okay, so I haven’t been around because I didn’t realize the site opened back up so I was f’ing off on Amazon for days. Glad to be off that. One of the psychos from CH’s board showed up, mouthed off and I told her it wasn’t third grade and to go take a pill if she couldn’t control herself. Yes, I was in full on Bitch mode – Miss Congeniality my ass. That’s the last thing anyone calls me in real life.

On to the book and the notorious spoilers…

(Apologies to those who saw this on Amazon)

I’ve thought a lot about this. I think she just neither had the will or enthusiasm to do this. She was able to do it because she had done this before with the Rhodes summit and Victor’s takedown. It’s not as if it couldn’t happen. She found the bracelet for SA and snuck it in so she wouldn’t be killed by PT.

Here’s the deal though and I honestly think this is it…CH believes she did set this up. As far back as book 3 we saw how little control vampires really had but I think the power of Eric’s personality and his age led readers to believe that Bill was just too weak or shifty to do something to stop what had happened (and the rape and near draining + his reaction sealed that deal). The first mistake was right there when CH kept him and didn’t explain this. One simple conversation with Eric or Pam would have done it. I think CH didn’t lie when she said DTTW Eric was the real Eric because in that book Eric is completely freed of all duties and expectations of a vampire. He can say exactly what he feels and do what he wants because he’s of no use to them any longer. Even Pam only wants him as a soldier and has already taken over as sheriff. Sookie herself notices this. So yes, this is the real Eric and he says exactly what he feels and wishes because he can. And while Sookie loves the fantasy, she holds herself back because she knows it is going to change when his memory comes back and it does. She mourns that Eric and the fantasy when he leaves because I think it was the best time she had with a supe. He was vulnerable and grew as it went on. They were more equals. But it is clear when that ends that Sookie feels that was a fantasy. I don’t think this book was a mistake at all. It was tight and written correctly.

Then we have the slow build up back to E/S with all of their interactions in between. There is the relationship with Quinn, the almost with Alcide that dies before it flies and the near miss with Sam in the office. But, through it all she kept building that bond between S/E. Sookie going to Fangtasia just to talk to him and him putting his hand on hers while he shared his past. It’s those kinds of things that built up the S/E fervor. As the two of them kept on with the adventures they had as far back as the pink lycra incident and the time in Jackson, it did become S/E against the world. Add to that his constant wondering about what had happened when he lost his memory until he finally, so poignantly remembers in her bedroom.

There is another huge miss here for where CH was going. Sookie loved her adventures and did not spend enough time worried about her association with vampires. She would get tired of them then leap back in. Eric could also have shown this because he knew how frail she was in spite of how strong, brave and loyal she was. A couple of well placed sentences from him would have set it up. She had the perfect opportunity when he told Sookie what the curse was and how terrible it was. If she had had Eric hesitate then when he told her that life with her was his heart’s desire. If he had told her that he didn’t see how it could ever work without her being killed in the end, it would have transitioned the fans. I think that CH thought that Eric’s hubris about his ultimate inability to protect Sookie was shining through but it really wasn’t, in part because she kept having those two win over and over – against vamps, faeries, demons, and Weres. We never saw them lose. They even won against Eric’s maker in DIITF.

But this is the problem. If she knew where she was going then she should have spent a little time in each book doing a better set up. The wind down of S/E could have easily been built. She could have ended it with Eric telling her that yes they could join FdC, take down Freyda, increase FdC’s holdings in exchange for protection and obtain forgiveness for Victor, BUT the danger would never end. There would always be another Freyda, another contract from someone higher up the chain and another battle. In the end, he would lose Sookie in one of those battles. If Eric had just told her that he had finally realized that the only way he’d ever be able to protect would be to defeat all the other vampires in power, which would take longer than her lifetime if he could do it, and entail having to take her from Bon Temps which she didn’t want and he had sworn not to do. If he had told her the only way they could ever realistically be together was for him to turn her to protect her and defeat everyone until he was at the very top then asked her to choose, sadly we would all have known what she would have chosen but we would have accepted it.

That could have ended some where in the middle of book 12 and the rest of book 12 and book 13 could have been her building up to a life with Sam who was somewhere in between like herself, supe enough not to be normal and normal enough to need to live in the normal world rather than the supe one. A few more near misses with Sam along the way or even fantasies at night on her porch thinking what if I chose Sam would have sufficed. (And a lot more character building of Sam not in a story that she said was just extra and not intrinsic to the story itself.)

It doesn’t have a date, but it has her books listed up to 2007 and AB is mentioned as is TB so it is probably around 2008. Anyway, this stuck out to me -

It didn’t matter that the kind of novel she set her sights on hadn’t really been done before-a humorous vampire story set in the South. It also didn’t matter that her agent wasn’t enthused about the idea or that it would take two years to sell to a publisher.

What mattered was this was the novel Harris, who had a lifelong interest in the paranormal, believed in.
…

More importantly, with Sookie, Harris reinvented herself after more than 25 years as a published writer. The payoff for Harris’ risk-taking has culminated in a wildly successful year.

…

Not bad for what began as a tough re-examination of her career.

“I was looking at 50 and my career was stuck on the midlist in a good year,” said Harris, now 56. “I couldn’t seem to get the toehold I wanted. I could have chugged along that way and been reasonably happy. But it struck me that if I were to do anything different and break out of that midlist, the time was now. I wanted to write something that would appeal to a wider audience and something that would play to more my strengths than writing conventional mysteries had.”

And Harris knew exactly what strengths she wanted to shine in her novel.

“I’ve always been a humorous person and I thought it would be fun to write something that contained more humor than I had tried to write. I also wanted to try writing a sex scene before I grew so old that it would be silly. And I just wanted to try to write something about the supernatural because I have been fascinated by the supernatural and the macabre for my entire lifetime.

And that is the sad part. CH wanted to reinvent herself and did for a time by inventing that wild and wonderful word in the midst of a very small town in the South. It was completely brilliant and she pulled it off, despite her lack of continuity and her sometimes rushed endings. She had done it. Then she forgot what she was trying to do the entire time (write for the paranormal) and went back to her “roots” of mystery writing where she had been stuck at midlist. And she created an ending that wasn’t even midlist because it was the clash of two genres in one series, the paranormal fantasy and her mysteries which tend to be darker, entrenched in reality and open ended. She forgot why she came there in the first place. And with that, she lost the very audience she wanted to capture and did capture for such a brief, yet shining, moment. I think that what Charlaine thought she was showing was the hubris of a 1,000 yr old vampire and how it did him in, but instead what she showed us was the hubris of a midlist writer who wanted to break into the paranormal, managed it, then spit all over the readers she gained and did herself in.

That is what I was thinking, too, though I could in no way say it as brilliantly as you did. CH has been saying ‘this isn’t a romance’ for so long – she was NEVER in the genre of PNR, not really, even though she had vampires and there was sex (though those of us who read PNR know that the sex scenes in the book were tame in the extreme). She created a WONDERFUL character that we all fell in love with – but she didn’t know what to do with him once she started, once he really took off as the romantic lead, because that wasn’t what she wanted to write in the first place. Maybe she dabbled and regretted it? I don’t know. But Eric Northman took a life of his own, and instead of going with it, she trashed him. Some people were able to step back and be okay with the new Eric she was writing, but those of us who fell in love with him were not able to do that. We kept seeing things in her writing that either were not there, or WHERE there for the money, to string us along like a calf on the teet. So many people have put this in the PNR genre because there’s vampires and weres and sex, but I guess she never really wanted to go there. She tried, succeeded, but in the end just didn’t care enough to go along with what she’d created. That’s just fucking stupid.

She set her cap at the wider audience, and got us in, “Then she forgot what she was trying to do the entire time (write for the paranormal) and went back to her “roots” of mystery writing where she had been stuck at midlist.”

To me the message is that love is not enough and we should be happy
with the little happiness we can find in life. That is real. We do
have intense loves and friendships that end and we get over them. I
helped my friend last spring when her boyfriend of 4 years left her on
a whim. It was awful but she is happy now, she has a new boyfriend.
But poor Sookie has an unreal amount of unhappieness. Lets look
back…She gets attacked by drug dealers for helping a stranger. Her
Grandmother who raised her gets murdered, oh yeah and her parents were
murdered and her mother never really loved her and her uncle molested
her and she had a terrible child hood beceuse of what she thinks is a
disability and her brother and only living relative is an ahole. That
is before she meets any supes that she knows of. Her first boyfriend
leaves her for another woman and then it turns out he courted her on
false pretenses even lying to her about it. Then said boyfriend rapes
her and almost kills her. She ends up in the hospital more times than
I can count. She is kidnapped and tortured. The FBI wants to use her
for their own ends. I could go on. THROW SOOKIE A BONE LET HER HAVE
THE LOVE OF HER LIFE!

In the end Sookie ends up in a similar situation to Gran. Gran was
married to a man she loved but had to have children with a Fea. Sookie
is with the man who can give her children but her heart belongs to
another. CH has said that she wrote the books because she wanted to
see what a human and vampire relationship would really be like, if it
could work out. She seems to be all about realism in the paranormal
genre which I think, as strange as it sounds, works. It is sort of
like the opposite of magic realism (another genre I love): Sort of
ordinary things happen in a really unordinary version of our world. I
don’t believe you ever REALLY get over a love like she and Eric had,
that is not REAListic.

Sadly, the way this ends, I don’t believe Sookie could ever be faithful to Sam nor Sam to Sookie. I see Eric somehow sneaking off or Niall mistakenly having Preston pose as Eric and Sookie turning into Gran. I see Sam running with the other shifters and twoeys and screwing one while he’s changed. They both liked beings that were far more spicey and dangerous than themselves and this is not what they have gotten. This is settling for what is left, but will never be enough.

The total fuckedupedness of it all is that Sookie might be okay with a TB Sam but she will never be ok with CH’s version of Sam. If CH was so damned set on having Sam win in the end, she should have least built as interesting a character in him as she did with the rest of the characters. Even Jane Bodehouse is clearer to me than Sam and that is pathetic.

CH needs to fire her editor/friend (never hire a friend and this is a prime example of why) and her publisher Penguin for allowing her to do something so completely stupid. You know how they are always sending celebrities off to rehab when they act out and ruin their careers? That is what they should have done to CH when she started showing such contempt for her own characters and audience. They certainly should have refused to publish this last disaster unless she changed it.

She needs to become a writing 101 class on what not to do to your own series.

I really don’t want to start speculating again Zanne. I totally want to forget about the whole series but I can’t help myself:( I remember reading Sam said that he would only shift because Sookie ask in that renovation book Maybe the CD also change Sam’s shifting ability. Makes it hard for him, it changes his DNA a bit, hence speculation that the frizzy haired girl on the Coda cover is Sookie and Sam’s daughter because now, it’s easy to get preggo with shifters. Crap! i don’t want to speculate anymore. I just want drown my sorrow cause CH just not that deep. She says she supports minority and the book is about telerance but in the end, she’s not really. I’m always a minority where I go and I married to someone from different country and culture. That’s why i still read this book even after the crappy DR because i thought the message is that you can overcome anything when you love. Maybe that’s why she wrote Sookie always waiting for someone, be it Quinn, Bill or Eric to contact her and never takes any innitiative to find out about what happen to them. If you love someone and know that they are in trouble like what happen to Eric, you would still try to reach out. She never did but instead told Eric to to fix his own problem. Maybe this is CH’s subtle hint that Sookie don’t really love Eric, but he thought contradicts this hints. If it is indead a hint, than she really is not that good a writer cause this reader didn’t get it. That’s why she needs to destroy Eric’s character completely to make Sam look good. Then, what about Sookie boning Sam a few days after the divorce. This is not the Sookie that we know. I feel so stupid sticking to it even though I hate continuity issues of the last 3 book. I do not want to reread the earlier books at all, knowing how it ends.

Hi guys! i’ve been a silent lurker of this fansite for years. now i felt i had to write something about this travesty of an ending. I read the Aurora teagarden series just a few weeks ago. If you guys have read it, you know how the story went.. i had a sinking feeling after reading it that something like that would happen to the Sookie series. And i was right i too feel letdown by how CH just wrapped up this series. I’m cool about the S/S endgame IF ONLY there was a buildup leading to it, even a little. But bam! it just happened like that. imagine that, 12 books. why develop the eric storyline, just to end up with nothing. i dont get it. i’ve read my share of books from other authors and im usually spot on with how the ending will go based on the story development. but not this series. and a long series at that. i thank the internet for the spoilers! im usually not deterred by any spoilers (good or bad), but this time it just really put me off from buying the last book. it just feels like all those money and years i spent on the series was wasted

That was one of my thoughts, too. This is the reason I am upset about the ending. I feel duped. It seems there have been many purposeful misdirections to keep readers who would have left otherwise. The one that stands out for me is Sookie’s inner dialog of “as if” when Jannalyn thinks she is after Sam. How can we, as readers, figure out a story if the characters thoughts are not true?

I just want to say thank you for this site over the years. It helps me to know there are others that feel the same way. I am glad SVM has remained with us and I think the site is awesome.

Maybe we can all make ourselves feel better by imagining Eric 200 years from now. He will hopefully be able to enjoy his freedom. We can give this to ourselves and Eric.

SVB please please find a way to keep this community of readers together. I have never been involved in anything like this before and I know I am new here but it seems like you have something really special here. It would be a shame to waste it and a good bright side to this sad mess.

“Since you’ve stopped to speak to me, I know you’re not going to do it.” He said that with the utmost confidence. “You won’t keep Eric, either.”

And Niall’s take on it just cements it.

“(he) wanted to keep control over so vital a being … So unstable. Appius Livius Ocella made mistakes in his whole long existence. Perhaps changing Eric was his finest hour. He created the perfect vampire.”

Sure sounds like CH, doesn’t it? Creates the perfect vampire than destroys him and takes away his one love after he already stripped him of everything and everyone he cared about and took him from his home. And he left him chained in a loveless relationship as a sex slave to solidify his power. Sound exactly like what CH did to him.

Maybe CH should take heed at how that turned out for Appius. Not so well. His next child was a disaster who destroyed him.

I wouldn’t worry about this. When Game of Thrones first appeared on HBO, most top “critics,” including those for the New York Times, and even Maureen Ryan, who had read all the original George RR Martin books on which the series is based, gave the first season tepid-to-terrible reviews. Now that the show is a critical and fan hit, they have fallen over themselves praising the story-telling, the genre, the acting, the whole nine yards. Only one or two, like the Washington Post’s Hank Stuever, has admitted his complete failure to recognize the greatness of the show. Amnesia has hit everyone else, it seems, or a feeling that the show has suddenly improved since Season One. (Newsflash: it was as good in Season One as it is now in Season Three—thgey just didn’t see it.)

Romantic Times may be the only major outlet to see DEA as a triumph now that the manure has hit the propeller on social media. We’ll see.

Thank you, DH87. I do really hope that CH gets the message….and not just from the EL fanbase. I do believe we have given her a lot of leeway & even defended her on account of her creation of the fantastic humorous chemistry between the two. Without taking that into consideration, I would really like to see how others rate it.
On a side note – Always makes one appreciate and value people more when they admit failure …like Mr Stuever that you mentioned. Kudos to him!

You have to laugh about the irony that Romantic Times gives it 4.5 stars when she’s so adamant that it is not a romance. That must chap her butt big time. I wonder what the paranormal and UF publication and sites will rate it.

I think we need to steel ourselves that the book will get more good reviews. Those who are not die hard Eric lovers may agree with RT. Obviously I hope the book is trashed, but I’m not holding my breath.

From what I’ve seen, Romantic Times has been the ONLY one to review it so far.
I would have thought that there would have been more by now considering the book is going to be released in a week. (Maybe less than the week if the rumours are true?) I don’t know. I don’t pay attention to review sites like that but I do find it odd that Romantic Times is the only one to do that.

I assume that all of the other SS books in the past must have received at least 2-6 reviews like that prior to release?
Like I said, I’m just assuming so correct me if I’m wrong. I do find it strange that I can’t even find star ratings/quotes that are from other reviewers like Romantic Times.

what CH said about Sookie settle down and white picket fences? we need to collect all the statements made ​​and CH that proved lies and bait money, I think that the books was about tolerancy and acceptance of differences, and in the end it is establishing with the “good guy”, you know what keeps coming back in my mind? when Sookie found Sam in the church, because now he wanted to be part of the community, or all the times they left together in DR and DL, as I could imagine that Harris would go to the common and ordinary (nothing against it, but that’s not what she insinuated throughout the series), in order that Sookie sought acceptance in the world, and find in the super world, just turning to what she wanted, the acceptance of the human world and normal, nothing against it, if that was not the opposite of the proposed by the entire series. Well it’s good that she has the Eric for prostituting out until the end of the series.

I have been through so many emotions these past few days as it sounds like so many of you have as well. Each morning I wake up hoping it’s a bad dream. I think it’s STILL shocking! I immediately cancelled both my kindle pre order and hard copy pre order. I took CH’s advice and if I don’t like ‘em – I won’t buy them! I was initially so distraught, disappointed and distressed over this that I regretted reading this series, but now I am glad I did. I was at first sorry over all the money, time and energy I have put into it, but again I realized the journey was the best part. I feel responsible over how many people I had helped steer to this series and can only hope that they can appreciate the good part of it and ignore this cluster f*** of a finale! I will eventually read DEA because I need to complete it too, but I know it’s going to be so very painful. I thought about tossing all my books, but then I realized up until the end – this journey has been so wonderful. So I will take comfort in that. I don’t think I can read any of them again for some time, but eventually I will and I will end things the way I believe they should have – in my imagination. I have never felt the need to preorder any books in order to have them on the release date, prior to this series. I have never been on any blogs until this series either. I just fell in love with the dynamic of the S/E relationship and just loved to obsess over it! It was book 4 DTTW that cinched it for me and I was hooked:) I thought CH was so clever for building this arc – I feel like such a sucker! Thank you so much SVB for this wonderful site that I stalked for several years! It is fun to share our thoughts with each other and to know that we all share the depth of feeling for these characters that apparently CH does not. I agree with all of you, it wasn’t that the HEA wasn’t Eric (although I would have loved that!). It was that we had 12 filler books that really did not build and lead to Sam. It’s all already been said so much better by all of you – end result we were used for our $$. I intellectually understand why she did it, but my heart weeps! I read all of her other series after finding SVM just to try and get a feel for her writing in hopes of predicting the end lol. Luckily I didn’t purchase them! I guess the Aurora Teagarden books were a clue as she did the same thing there only I didn’t really care about the characters like I did with Sookie and of course Eric. I was hoping I could put into words the depth of my despair over this finale, but I can’t. I tell myself that it’s just a book, but I cared so much and it feels like someone died! I am glad the site is still here and going to continue! Thank you to all of you and SVB.

It’s actually better to be prepared … the worst part of it is that we could have buy everything concerning the end if Mrs. Harris would have prepared and focused on this ending long before. But the absurdity of the whole thing is that it looks completely out of the blue and whithout any roots. And Sookie ends up just where she started her journey …which cannot be satisfactory from a phylosophical point of view ! Everything is so false and wrong …If Mrs. Harris knew how this would end, then she should have done her writer work end prepare with an ad hoc storyline. Why didn’t she do it ?? this is the real interesting part of it : maybee because a Sookie/Eric romance was a better sale ? Then why not change the end and make even more money ?? All this is about being lazy and expecting your readers to be complete idiots …well, guess what ? we aren’t and we won’t die silent either !!

What it boils down to is a monkey typing out the Bible. CH’s authorship of these wonderful characters and their engaging world isn’t due to talent or even writing skills — it’s purely a random event. Let’s face it, the pace at which she grinds out copy doesn’t allow for the incisive reflection and revision process that is critical to creating great fiction. Writers of modern, character-driven literature listen to their characters, try to see through their eyes and feel what they feel. Good writers understand their characters’ motivations and let those determine the characters’ actions and choices. Usually that requires many, many drafts, and often, the characters end up surprising the writer and going in a much different direction than originally envisioned. CH clearly didn’t understand or take the time to listen to her creations.

All this grief pouring out here now is not that we didn’t get the ending we had hoped for — it’s that the characters didn’t get the ending they so clearly desired.

As I wrote before, I strongly believe (from my own writing experience) that strong characters are taking over the writing process and that the author is possessed by them to a point that he or she becomes their instrument and the first reader of what is actually written. this is a perfect moment, you just sit down in the morning and you have no clue where you are going, but at the end of the day everything is just perfect ! That is what strong characters do to you. Having your own agenda to finish a story can come in contradiction with where the main characters have led you successfully before, which means you have to adjust to them and not the contrary. DEA is a failure because Mrs. Harris forced her characters to adjust to her 14 years old vision which was obsolete and incorrect in regard of all what had happend meanwhile. As you said, it takes some writer’s intelligence to recognize that your characters have a better vision and to let them follow their natural path. Even if it is not your own one …you envisionned 14 years back.

I’ve never identified with this controlled writing even though I know many writers who do it. For me it’s like movies always playing in my head. I just choose which one to tap into and the words come flying out onto the keyboard. I don’t decide anything, I just let it flow. It’s the most glorious thing I’ve ever felt and I would do it over anything else if allowed. So I just never could related to all of this blocking and diagraming and control. After this debacle I guess it stood me in good stead.

J.K. Rowling is a classic example of controlled, blocked writing. She had the ending to Harry Potter planned from the beginning and, as a result, wrote one of the best endings to a series I have ever experienced. I think it spoiled me for all other endings.

I think that the epilogue itself ruined the whole last book (and the movie, of course…cause it tried to copy that ridiculous epilogue) but that’s just my opinion.
I would’ve ended the movie/book without going to the future and settling Harry and so on…

I know that in writting classes they tell you that you have to know the begining of the story and the end. But this theory works for one book at a time, not when you engage yourself in a series of books over 14 years of writing. In this case, you have to ask yourself if your old vision is still accurate with all what happend meantime. I was also told that a good ending is when some incertainty is left open for the reader to fill on its own. This is not the case in DEA. The file is definitively closed for 200 years !! You should not feel the urge of a Coda to follow up the stories to tell you what is actually happening after DEA. A good ending settles the reader’s mind for good …and just tell me who cares what is happening to the Bellefleur, how many kids every one is going to have or even if Sookie’s little cousin is going to win the pullizer price in the future ?? What we need right now is an alternative DEA a whole different book than the one actually going to be on the shelves soon ….